Thursday July 19: American Dreams and Nightmares

This month we’re proud to present a curated programme of notable American short films from the past decade or so. These films have played festivals around the world and we’re happy to bring them to you here in Toronto. Please join us and bring a friend or two!

Crystal Lake is about a group of girls who take over a skate park, forming an all-female force field on the half pipe. There on the ramp, with no boys around, they are thriving and visible. This is an anthem for young feminists which presents female friends as a means to survive adolescence. EVERY GRRRL-SHAPED BREATH IS A BATTLE CRY.

Duration: 16:00

STRYKA

Dir: Emily Carmichael
USA – 2015

Stryka is an awesome reptile woman from another planet who does heists and odd jobs with her (literal) partner in crime, Callen. But she has a secret: she’s been stealing with somebody else. (She just wants a partner who cleans up well enough to pull off a fancy jewel heist once and a while–is that so wrong?) Anxious about her career in thievery and torn by her loyalty to competing thieves, Stryka has to figure out where she belongs. Luckily, she has a highly advanced robot therapist to talk it over with.

Duration: 8:00

THE PROCEDURE

Dir: Calvin Lee Reeder
USA – 2016

A man is tranquilized on the street and wakes to find himself tied up in empty room. But what is that thing coming down?

Duration: 4:00

AFTERMATH ON MEADOWLARK LANE

Dirs: David Zellner, Nathan Zellner
USA – 2007

While on their way to a mariachi recital, a devastating car crash forces a mother and her two sons to confront the truth about their past.

Duration: 10:00

FRY DAY

Dir: Laura Moss
USA – 2017

An adolescent girl comes of age against the backdrop of serial killer Ted Bundy’s execution in 1989.

Duration: 16:00

DARLING DARLING

Dir: Matthew Lessner
USA – 2005

Meeting your date’s parents is never a comfortable experience, but the event is taken to unexpected levels of surreality in Matthew Lessner’s directorial debut starring Michael Cera as an awkward and flustered everyteen forced to make small talk with his prom date’s bizarre father.

Duration: 12:00

MEN DON’T WHISPER

Dir: Jordan Firstman
USA – 2017

After being emasculated at a sales conference, gay couple Reese and Peyton decide the only way to regain their confidence and prove their masculinity is to sleep with some women. When they meet fellow conference attendees and pleasure seekers Beth and Dominique, it seems like a perfect match. Unfortunately sealing the deal is easier said than done.